Nick Harvey: After 30 years as an actor, this was one of the most enjoyable films I’ve done. The whole cast in this film liked each other, had a beer together after filming, and sat around and chewed the fat. Brad Johnson, why he was never the next John Wayne I’ll never know. He’s a real cowboy, rancher, and a bloody nice bloke.

Some may remember Brad Johnson as the fighter pilot in Steven Spielberg’s Always. Copperhead also starred Billy Drago, who has played many sorts of villains, from one of Al Capone’s gangsters in Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables to the magical demon Barbas in the TV series Charmed.

Nick Harvey: Bill must be one of the all-time Nice Guys from Hollywood. Off-screen he is like a lost child from the 70′s hippie era and loves a beer and to tell a story.

Nick Harvey: I was actually cast in the role that Gil Gerard finished up playing in Ghost Town (the Sheriff) … cast in the role by Todor (the director ) and the casting director at BUFO in Bulgaria. But when the cast was sent to UFO [United Film Organization] in LA for approval, they said I was a comedy actor and this was a straight role. They had spoken to Gil in LA and he had accepted the role. So I went to the next character (the Mayor).

I was a bit discerned about me being typecast as a comedy actor, as I’ve played mostly dramatic characters in my career. But at least I’d been noticed as “something” hahaha by the powers that be in LA and was chuffed that I’d been knocked out of a role by Gil Gerard. And I still had a job.

Gil was also a great guy to work with and we linked up off-screen as well for dinner. As the studio was busy, I took my car and we went to the ancient city of Plovdiv here in Bulgaria for the day to show him some history of the country, which he was very interested in.

All the cast of Ghost Town got on well. As it was a movie that crossed 2 time zones, I didn’t meet or work much with Randy Wayne or Jessica Rose. But with Billy Drago back in the cast was also a lot of fun.

Nasko Srebrev [who played in both Ghost Town and Copperhead among many other films] is a great actor and friend as well. He lives here in Sofia, so we meet up from time to time anyway. The actors of his genre here, Nasko, George Zlatarev, and Vlado Mihailov, are all friends and we all meet up from time to time for a gossip and bitch over a beer.

Now we come to the final stretch of the interview, regarding Nick Harvey’s work in War, Inc. We also cover his earliest acting experiences, his work beyond film, and some final bits of advice.

Nick Harvey:War, Inc. was a step up in pace from the UFO productions. I had a small speaking role in it and 3 days work. I met all the cast including the unstoppable John Cusack. He’s a work dynamo from when he hits the set of a morning to when he wraps.

I got a great pic taken with Sir Ben Kingsley and Marisa Tomei. My scenes in the movie were with Marisa Tomei, John Cusack and Ben Kingsley, so that was lucky for me…

In my scene, I was an interfaith clergyman in the final fight scene where Marisa is in a karate fight with the villain, and it involved her doing a lot of high karate kicks right in from of me. Well I must say, the sights made my day, and how the costume people forgot to tell her to wear sports knickers in the scene, instead of a G-string, I’ll never know, but be eternally grateful hahahaha.

Before War, Inc. came along, what were some of your earliest experiences as an actor?

Nick Harvey: I hope the only way my approach has changed is that I’ve learned more about the application of the craft, from Stage to TV to Film and probably don’t take the knocks we all get in the industry seriously anymore.

Whether in film or outside the world of film, what other projects are you working on?

At present I’m not working on any film projects. I finished a music project with Terry Douglas, a CD. It’s called Broken Hearted Lover Man, no real life reference there.

As my day job, I’m working in Africa as the Director of Mining Operations and Project Manager for (Union Gold WA) finding, identifying and developing Gold and Diamond mines. Exciting huh!! and a lot more money than acting.

As a final question, what would your advice be for beginning actors and filmmakers?

Nick Harvey: Advice to filmmakers … get a good script, good director, and plenty of money hahaha….

For actors … learn your craft well. Take any work available that involves any type of acting, because you learn and develop from everything you do. In the beginning, don’t rush your career, and don’t take roles that are outside your ability.

Do a course in TV and film, learn to work to a camera properly. Rule is, on stage, move your body. TV… move your head. Film… move your eyes.

Learn to be a professional from the very beginning. Be where you are asked at the time you are asked to be there … or 1 minute earlier. Study the industry itself. Learn how a movie is made, so you totally understand what and why everyone on the set is doing what they are doing. Respect them all. Learn something from every actor you work with. And finally, take the industry you are working in seriously … not yourself.

That’s how a movie guide might summarize 2008’s Copperhead. It’s Cowboys versus Copperheads … nature’s … um … Cowboy Killing Machines. For a breif instant we get a bit of realism: a computerized animation of a one-toothed snake. Apparently, somebody behind the scenes was aware that copperheads sometimes lose their fangs after biting a victim, and that they can replace their fangs up to four times a year.

But that’s it for realism. The rest is pure fantasy.

Snakes slithering up walls (in order to surprise victims by plopping down from rafters and rooftops) … cowboys doing a snake-dance while holding bundles of sensitive nitroglycerin … a big something at the end of the movie (which will not be described here, for anti-spoiler reasons) … and a Gatling gun that shoots both bullets and harpoons.

And be on the lookout for the sheriff. He hides from bullies. Yet he picks on heroes who are trying to uphold the law. He’s real handy with making wanted posters.

Most enjoyable of all is the reinvention of cowboy trash talk. Consider this crooked game of poker, in which the hero and villain antagonize each other to no end (NOTE: certain italicized words have been altered to maintain a G Rating):

Yet there is so much more! Remember the Philadelphia Experiment, that true story that allegedly never took place during the 1940s? Well, apparently, scientists from that experiment were transported back—way, way back!—to the age of dinosaurs.

And then some army guys go through time to rescue them.

But it’s the scientists who are the real heroes of this movie. Living in the past has made ’em tough. Like … killing raptors and pterodactyls and outwitting a big reddish-looking T. Rex known as Big Red … that kind of tough. They can even jump from a helicopter twenty feet high above the ground with the ease and skill of Jedi Ninjas!!

The only thing weighing these guys down is perhaps their science. It’s a bit heavy.

WARNING: *Scientifically Challenged Spoiler Alert*

Time travel involves poking your pointy finger at a little handheld device … thereby activating the much larger Rainbow Device, which we really don’t need (depending on where we are in the movie) … as long as the presiding scientist can somehow generate enough exotic matter to penetrate the space/time continuum with a sparkly blue wormhole, otherwise known as a singularity.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go have a time out to think about what I just said.